The Walt Disney Company dominates the theme park industry, and their six American gates are the crown jewel of the empire. Here’s a question, though. If you only had time to visit one of these parks, which one would you choose and why? Obviously, it’s a matter of opinion, and there’s no right or wrong answer per se. Still, it’s a fun subject to debate. Here’s what I would do if I could only visit one American Disney theme park.
The Also-Rans
Image: DisneyLet’s start with a quick evaluation of my thought process on how I determined my One True Disney Park. I weighed the wow factor of a park, its ease of navigation and exhaustion factor, and how comfortable I am recommending it to first-time Disney visitors. Given this criteria, a couple of the parks are easy to rule out.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Image: DisneyAt some point in the future, Hollywood Studios might be a part of the conversation, once they’ve maxed out Star Wars Land with the introduction of Star Wars Hotel. For now, it’s Toy Story Land and a handful of other tremendous standalone attractions. On days when the park isn’t crowded, you’ll have a blast, but it’s clearly not THE place to spend a single day at a Disney theme park.
Disney California Adventure
Image: DisneySimilarly, Disney California Adventure (DCA) is a park in transition right now. Its recent introductions such as The Incredicoaster and Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! are a strong step forward, and the entirety of Pixar Pier hints at a glorious future. Once DCA combines Marvel and Pixar everywhere, it’ll be the perfect place to live out the past quarter-century of Disney-acquired blockbusters at a theme park. For now, it suffers from the same fate as Hollywood Studios. It has a handful of extremely good rides, but it just can’t compete with the other parks on this list.
The Maybes
Image: DisneyIn evaluating the best choice to spend a single day at an American Disney theme park, a couple of gates fell into the middle category. They’re both spectacularly entertaining places, ones where you could happily spend the day. The only problem is the competition. Relative to the choices in the best tier, these two fall just notch below in terms of entertainment value.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Image: DisneyPrior to the opening of Pandora – The World of Avatar, Animal Kingdom clearly would have fallen in the Also-Rans category. Before you rush to judgment, let me explain. The technical achievement of Animal Kingdom is arguably the greatest thing in the interest since the introduction of Disneyland itself. More than 40 years later, Disney showed that Imagineers were still capable of making magic.
Uncle Walt famously wanted the Jungle Cruise to have live animals. He was disappointed that his co-workers thought the idea was insane. During the Decade of Disney, the 1990s, Michael Eisner championed the idea of an eco-friendly theme park with live animals as inhabitants. More than 20 years later, the idea still resonates and impresses.
In 2017, Disney upped the ante by adding the breathtaking world of Pandora as a themed land. It promptly increased park traffic by 25 percent, demonstrating the effectiveness of the project. Yes, Animal Kingdom started amazing and has only gotten better over time.
The reason why I wouldn’t pick Animal Kingdom as THE park to visit is its size and overall ride quality. While some of the attractions are phenomenal, others are lackluster bordering on cheap. This fact holds back Animal Kingdom in the discussion.
Epcot
Image: DisneyThis cut was the harshest for me personally. Epcot is my favorite park, and Spaceship Earth is my all-time favorite attraction. Since I was a kid visiting during the earliest days of Epcot, I’ve deeply admired the front of the park, Future World. Somehow, the overtly educational portions of its attractions never bothered me. Instead, they delighted me and triggered my desire to learn as much as possible about the world around me.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve grown to appreciate the World Showcase a great deal. The mechanics of it are exceeded only by the politics, including a couple of foreign governments that paid for their pavilions. At one point, the FBI was so concerned about the inclusive, tolerant nature of the World Showcase that they spied on Epcot. Apparently, they didn’t realize that it wasn’t the actual United Nations or something.
I’m in awe of the fact that Epcot embodies such diverse premises as an infotainment-based theme park and a daily World’s Fair. I could spend all of my time at Epcot…and on some vacation days, I do. When I recommend it to non-Disney fans, however, they struggle to understand the appeal of the World Showcase (beyond the cuisine possibilities, anyway). And when I suggest the best rides at Walt Disney World, only four of them are at Epcot…and one of those, Spaceship Earth, works more for me than for most people. For these reasons, as much as I WANT to pick Epcot as the best place, I just can’t.
The Alphas
Image: DisneyIn the end, the decision about which Disney park is the best one to visit comes down to the old East Coast/West Coast feud. It’s Anaheim vs. Orlando in a battle of superiority. It’s classic Disney vs. new and improved Disney, too, although the “new” one has a 50th anniversary coming up soon. To me, the reality is that every person should visit ALL of these parks at some point in their lives. I certainly have, and I will be in all six of them over the next few months.
Magic Kingdom
Image: DisneyOkay, this is the park I am NOT picking. I say this in spite of the fact that it’s the theme park that I’ve visited the most in my life. On days when I Park Hop, it doesn’t matter which gate we visit first. We always end up at Magic Kingdom afterward.
This place is home to roughly 50 rides, a number that’s constantly in flux since Disney frequently adds new attractions. And the rides that they host are of impeccable quality. Space Mountain was born here, and other classics like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Jungle Cruise all have their longest and best versions at Magic Kingdom. When you visit this park, you can easily spend 12 hours here, never repeating anything that you’ve done previously.
Magic Kingdom is a 10 out of 10 under any reasonable scoring system. The problem is that Disney has multiple parks that qualify as perfect. In choosing between them, I had to think about a first-time guest wandering around the park. They’d find the spacious nature of Magic Kingdom problematic over the course of a full day, lamenting their sore feet. Also, the circular nature of the hub-and-spokes designs is potentially frustrating due to the fact that some lands don’t meet. You must go back near/through the castle’s courtyard to reach them. The scale of Magic Kingdom works against it in this way, at least compared to the winner.
Disneyland
Image: DisneyYes, if you could only visit one American Disney park, the choice is clear, at least to me. You should visit the original, the place where Walt Disney walked through a forest of orange groves and thought, “I could build a family-friendly themed amusement park here.”
When you’re at the Happiest Place on Earth, you’re walking in the footsteps of Uncle Walt. You’re experiencing the park as he intended. Sure, many of the attractions have changed, but the underlying principle has stood the test of time. At Disneyland, you’ll find a series of themed lands, each of which immerse you into a small universe, one where you believe everything that you see. You’ll believe that the fables and myths are true in one place, just as you’ll feel as if you’ve stepped into the future at another.
Best of all, the modern negative of Disneyland is a hidden strength. The small size of the park allows for easy navigation. You won’t feel exhausted as you traverse the various lands. You’ll luxuriate in the full Disney theme park experience without pressuring yourself to do too much. And you’ll get to ride many of the finest attractions that Imagineers have ever built, some of which originated on the desk of Walt Disney. How could you possibly do better than that?
